mittman said:

Lets just say for argument's sake that Trump has reached a level of incorruptible riches. I don't buy it for a minute, but ok, whatever. The fact is that his whole modus operandi is based on buying people off. He is a true champion of eminent domain. That is how he has operated his companies his entire career. When it goes bad he just declares bankruptcy and the rest of us buy him out of it. I'm not sure what is worse, one who can't be bought off, or one who blatantly buys people off as a matter of habit.

Not sure how it creeped into this thread. The whole state of our state and federal government is just sad.

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Bama Reb said:

I disagree only with your word of description. You say "sad". I say "corrupt".

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mittman said:

Yes there is corruption. Even on a large scale. I will continue to say this though. We have not seen corruption compared to the majority of the nations. There are whole economic systems that would crash if they did away with it. Ours wouldn't. I have traveled my fair share, not as much as others on here, but enough. While it is bad in areas of the U.S. and no corruption is good, most don't know just how good we have it. When asked while travelling what the biggest difference is that allows us to continue to succeed, I go to the relative lack of corruption in our law enforcement.

I'll stick with sad.

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Bama Reb said:

No, it wouldn't, because most Americans don't have to rely on the gov't for their everyday existence.
I would venture to say that if our federal gov't were to disappear, most citizens would just say ''good riddance'', and keep on going.

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Bama Reb said:

No, it wouldn't, because most Americans don't have to rely on the gov't for their everyday existence.
I would venture to say that if our federal gov't were to disappear, most citizens would just say ''good riddance'', and keep on going.

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TIDE-HSV said:

The rest of you are too young to remember "Big Jim" Folsom, whose alcoholic antics were a subject of humor nation-wide. He even inspired a song - "Open the Door, Richard," which came from an incident when he arrived at the governor's mansion after it was locked up for the night and couldn't get anyone to the door. He slept on the lawn...

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Gov. Robert Bentley's state Facebook page shuts down critics, hides comments

Whistleblowers: Bentley ordered state helicopter to fly his forgotten wallet to the beach

Multiple confidential sources inside of state government came forward to Yellowhammer this week with accusations that Alabama Governor Robert Bentley ordered a state helicopter to fly his wallet to him at the beach, after he accidentally left it behind in the wake of an argument with his then-wife. If true, the allegations call into question Gov. Bentley’s assertion that he did not misuse state resources during his affair with his then-senior advisor Rebekah Mason.

The whistleblowers requested anonymity for fear of retribution, but each said they decided to come forward this week as the push to impeach the governor began to lose steam.

The whistleblowers’ allegations are as follows:

In the summer of 2015, Gov. Bentley and his then-wife Dianne had an argument at the couple’s private residence in Tuscaloosa over Gov. Bentley’s refusal to sever ties with Mrs. Mason, his top political advisor-turned-mistress.

As a result of the argument, Gov. Bentley left the residence in his pickup truck and drove toward the couple’s beach house in Ft. Morgan, Alabama. According to the sources, this happened on multiple occasions, leaving the governor’s security detail to decide whether to chase after him, or let him go.

When the governor arrived at his beach house, he realized that in his rush to leave, he had forgotten his wallet.

At that point, he ordered one of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) helicopters to deliver it to him, which it did.

The sources each said that current ALEA head Stan Stabler was involved in facilitating the delivery.

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Jon said:

John Oliver weighs in

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Jon said:

John Oliver weighs in

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Bentley's staff argues that there is no foul. Ardis said Bentley himself paid for all the Celine Dion tickets, and the Republican Governors Association reimbursed the Bentley campaign for the cost of the conference and the flight. The campaign reimbursed the state, and no taxpayer money was used, she said.

She did provide a copy of a deposit to the state of Alabama in the amount of $11,641.35. It was dated March 25 of this year. It came almost 19 weeks after the trip. And it came 3 days after former Alabama Law Enforcement Agency chief Spencer Collier went public with claims that Bentley and Mason had been engaged in an affair, and that Bentley had been warned that using state or campaign assets to carry out an affair could be illegal.

Ardis said the Republican Governors Association wired Bentley's campaign the reimbursement. She said she does not know why there was a delay or when the payments will appear on campaign finance reports.

But the concert – and the money – are just part of the issue. Some who have been close to the governor claim Bentley boasted prior to the trip of wanting to use Las Vegas to get some personal time with Mason.

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The untold story of how the secret Bentley-Mason affair recordings went public

As I drove up U.S. Highway 280, swerving in and out of traffic and making my way from suburban Birmingham toward the city’s center, I thought about the events of the past year that had led up to this moment.

For many months the hottest rumor in Alabama politics was that Governor Robert Bentley had engaged in a long-running extramarital affair with his senior political advisor Rebekah Mason, a married mother of three. At first the idea seemed so absurd I dismissed it as politically motivated nonsense. Now, here I was, driving toward an obscure Birmingham gas station to obtain the indisputable evidence that it was all true.

For the week prior to this midnight meeting, I had been in discussions with confidential sources who claimed to be in possession of secret audio recordings of Governor Bentley and Mrs. Mason. The recordings, I was told, had been made by Governor Bentley’s then-wife, Dianne, and contained explicit details of the Bentley-Mason affair. The sources were wary of their identities being revealed, and one of the sources expressed concerns about the Bentleys’ grandchildren having to endure such embarrassment.

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Spencer Collier files suit against Gov. Robert Bentley, Rebekah Mason

Spencer Collier, the fired former head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency whose words have ripped a hole in the administration of Gov. Robert Bentley, today filed suit against the governor, his former political adviser Rebekah Mason and others, claiming he was improperly fired and impugned.

The suit, filed this morning, names the Council for Excellent Government, the secretive 501c(4) that contributed to Mason's pay. It names current ALEA Secretary Stan Stabler, the Bentley campaign and Mason's company, RCM Communications, among others.

The suit claims defamation of character, invasion of privacy, wrongful termination and reckless conduct, among other things.

The complaint – as Collier has alleged from the beginning – claims he was punished by Bentley, at the direction of Mason, because he refused to lie to the attorney general's office about prosecutorial misconduct alleged by the defense in the case of Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard.

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The Love Song of Robert Bentley, Alabama’s Horndog Governor

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Tide1986 said:

Ha! Who would've thought Bentley would be featured in GQ?

https://www.gq.com/story/affair-robert-bentley-alabama-governor

[FONT=&quot]The Love Song of Robert Bentley, Alabama’s Horndog Governor[/FONT]

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